vi THE SPKEADING OF FOOD-PLANTS 71 



one variety the little insects live which make the 

 dye called cochineal. 



Now prickly pears are very easy to grow. Tear 

 off one of the racquet-shaped branches and stick it 

 into the ground, and if the soil and climate are 

 suitable, it will grow and branch very soon. Further, 

 as these branches keep the water they contain for 

 some time, they wither very slowly, and after being 

 carried over long distances will still grow when stuck 

 into the ground. Another simple way of growing 

 them is to sow the seeds out of the " pears " or 

 fruits. Because they were so easily transported, and 

 because the fruit was nice to eat, the first Spaniards 

 brought the plants back to Spain with them. 



In Spain and North Africa the prickly pear found 

 just the hot dry climate that suited it, and it 

 nourished apace, escaped from cultivation, and ran 

 wild everywhere. Nobody in Europe had ever seen a 

 plant like it, and everybody was greatly interested in 

 it. The botanists in the sixteenth century all speak 

 of it, and so it is easy to follow its progress as it 

 was carried to all the suitable parts of the Mediter- 

 ranean region. When the Moors were turned out of 

 Spain, they apparently took the plant with them 

 over to Barbary, where they called it the " Christian 

 fig," to distinguish it from the other fig, which had 

 been cultivated very much longer, and was common 

 to Christians and Mohammedans. 



